Host nation's Yun Sung-bin slides to gold in men’s skeleton

Republic of Korea’s Yun Sung-bin sent the home crowd at the Olympic Sliding Centre into raptures with his victory in the PyeongChang 2018 men’s skeleton final on Friday 16 February.

Yun held the lead after each of four runs on his home track, finishing a comfortable 1.63 seconds ahead of second-placed Nikita Tregubov (OAR) with Dom Parsons (GBR) claiming the bronze medal.

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Yun - who won five of the eight men’s World Cup races in 2018 and was a world championship silver medallist in 2017 – became the first Republic of Korea athlete to win a medal in a sliding sport. He is also the first athlete from Asia to medal in the skeleton, in which competitors slide head-first and solo down a twisting ice track.

Yun built a lead of more than one second after three runs, ensuring that only a major error - which he averted – in the final heat could rob him of a highly-anticipated gold medal in front of a home crowd that has closely followed the popular athlete’s Olympic journey.

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Yun thundered over the finish line at over 125 kilometres per hour in front of a euphoric home crowd, then took off his helmet and gave a deep bow on his hands and knees.“It is not my effort alone that got me this medal. I would like to thank all my team for helping me, encouraging me. It is still unbelievable that I got the gold medal. I would like to again thank everyone on my team for always encouraging me,” he said.

Nikita Tregubov (Getty Images)

“Getting the gold medal in any Olympics is a very great result but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honour, much bigger than that.”Tregubov described his silver medal as “a very great honour”.

“It was a very hard time for me actually, but right now I experience unbelievable feelings. It is an unbelievable experience to get a medal in this Olympics.”

Parsons' bronze was the first skeleton medal for a British male since 1948.